literary lairs lord byron
enjoyed a well-documented habit-clad romp with male friends, drinking champagne out of a skull his servant found. His only, albeit notable, additions to Newstead were a plunge pool in the slype, and the memorial to Boatswain, his Newfoundland dog. By 1814, Byron hadmainly debunked to London,
where he was also nearer his publisher, John Murray, in Albemarle Street; and his increasingly enthusiastic public. A keen hotel resident, he next took rooms in Bennet Street, before renting for seven years a large suite in Albany (originally Melbourne House) from Lord Althorpe. Albany’s architect, Henry Holland, adapted the house,making 12 apartments. Byron had No 2 Chambers to the left of the entrance, part of it carved fromLord Melbourne’s immense library. The poet’s eventual – and disastrous –marriage,
to wealthy Annabella Milbanke, on 2 January 1815, resulted in the unlikely couplemoving into 13
Above left, Byron in Albanian dress, painted in 1813. Top and above, Hopwood Hall, near Middleton, near Rochdale, Greater Manchester, is a current SPAB case – the fine Tudor building empty and at risk. Byron became Lord of the Manor of Rochdale in 1808, and was a friend of Hopwood’s owners. In 1811 he stayed at the hall, where he drafted ‘Childe Harold’. Below, Newstead Abbey, owned by Nottingham City Council, and long on the ‘at risk’ register. This March, the council pushed ahead with plans to close the Abbey, one of its greatest heritage assets, to visitors except on occasional afternoons
Piccadilly Terrace in April. Annabella’smother had rented the enormous house off Elizabeth Foster, second Duchess of Devonshire, for a crippling £700 a year. Byron had imagined that the couple would live at Newstead: “My wife & I shall be so happy – one in each wing.”Which distancemight have suited his own intentions, but evidently did not those of the bride. Themarriage soon broke down. Byron’s incest with his half-sister Augusta, and other infidelities, contributing; a bailiff in residence by November 1815 presumably adding. When Lord Byron left England permanently on 25 April 1816, Newstead was still unsold, but his
SIMON BARBER
Harrow contemporary, Captain ThomasWildman, bought it at the end of the following year for £94,500, with which Byron settledmost of his debts. ColonelWildman hired John Shaw as architect.
Works begun in 1818 were finished in 1829, pivoting around the addition of the Sussex Tower at the south end of theWest front.Wildman spent £100,000 on Newstead. Newstead Abbey today, while retaining theWest
Front that Byron knew well, is a tamer place.What will become of the building, as its condition gives cause for concern and the owner, the local authority, moves to close it to the public, is as yet unclear.
NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY/BRIDGEMAN
ANDY MARSHALL
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